FrameworksAlignment
Alignment
A framework for recognizing when ability, identity, environment, timing, values, and responsibility move in the same direction.
Overview
Alignment helps you see what is shaping the outcome beneath the surface.
A framework for recognizing when ability, identity, environment, timing, values, and responsibility move in the same direction.
Alignment helps you see what is shaping the outcome beneath the surface.
The elements
- 1
Ability
What you can naturally do well and learn quickly.
- 2
Identity
The person you are and the person the work requires you to become.
- 3
Environment
The place, culture, market, and people that determine whether ability is recognized.
- 4
Responsibility
The obligations that make a decision real rather than abstract.
- 5
Direction
Whether today’s effort points toward a future you want to inhabit.
How to use it
- 1
Name the forces that are currently reinforcing you and those that are draining you.
- 2
Test the environment, not only your own motivation.
- 3
Choose the next adjustment that increases fit without pretending every tension can disappear.
Common pitfalls
- Confusing alignment with comfort.
- Treating a successful outcome as proof that a decision was aligned.
- Ignoring responsibility in the name of self-expression.
Essays that explore this framework
3 essays available
The Opportunity I Couldn’t See
While I was consumed with buying Madoff’s market-making business, one of the best opportunities of my career called me directly. I told him I did not have time.
The Path I Did Not Take
A reflection on Boston, San Francisco, responsibility, and the difference between a successful path and an aligned one.
The Spokes of the Wheel
A philosophy of spiritual connection: how faith, action, and other people become the channels through which life changes.